Can’t keep Galileo down: Second one successfully launched

by William Atkins

Monday, 28 April 2008

Page 1 of 2 ! Mission managers at the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome announced Sunday, April 27, 2008, that a second satellite, GIOVE-B, for the European Space Agency’s Galileo global navigation satellite system was launched from a Soyuz-FG/Fregat launch vehicle. The first satellite, GIOVE-A (or, Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element-A) was launched on 0519 UTC on December 28, 2005, also with a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launched at 4:16 local time (00:16 Central European Summer Time (CEST); 2216 GMT), GIOVE-B (previously called GSTB-V2/B) is the second piece of hardware for the fledgling community of thirty planned satellites for the European community. GIOVE-B was first launched into a medium altitude earth orbit by launch operations company Starsem (“The Soyuz Company”). The Fregat upper stage maneuvered the satellite into a near-circular orbit of 14,420 miles (23,200 kilometers) with a 56-degree inclination to the Earth at about 3.75 hours after liftoff. By 5:28 CEST, just over five hours after launch, the solar panels on GIOVE-B had been deployed and the craft was deemed operational. GIOVE-B was manufactured by a European team headed by EADS Astrium, who is responsible for developing, manufacturing, and delivering the satellite, its payload, and the ground controlc omponents. Teaming with Astrium, Thales Alenia Space performed integration and testing in Rome, Italy. The parent company EADS, short for European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company EADS N.V. is a large European aerospace corporation, formed by the merger of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) of Germany, Aérospatiale-Matra of France, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain. Astrium, a subsidiary of EADS, is an aerospace component of the company. Astrium Space was formed in June 2006 from the merger of EADS Space Transportation and EADS Space Services. And, in July 2006, Astrium Space became known as simply: Astrium. GIOVE-B contains two rubidium atomic clocks, each with an accuracy of within ten nanoseconds (where one nanosecond is equal to one-billionth of one second) per day. Its payload is a Passive Hydrogen Maser (PHM) with an accuracy of one nanosecond per day or better. The PHM is considered the most accurate atomic clock ever launched into outer space. On future operational satellites two PHMs will be used as primary timing devices, with two rubidium clocks operating as backup. The GIOVE-B also contains a payload for monitoring radiation in space around its location in Earth orbit, and a laser retroreflector payload for very precise laser ranging measurements. After GIOVE-B went into space, ESA director general Jean Jacques Dordain stated, “With the successful launch of GIOVE-B, we are about to complete the demonstration phase for Galileo. The strong cooperation between ESA and the European Commission has been instrumental in making progress in a difficult environment over the past few years; and, even with that being so, Galileo has already materialised, with two satellites now in orbit, significant headway made on the next four (already in the construction phase) and a fully qualified EGNOS service - all this designed to serve citizens in Europe and all around the globe. ESA will begin shortly the procurement process for the overall constellation beyond IOV under EC responsibility.” [ESA Galileo Launch – GIOVE-B: “ESA's most advanced navigation satellite launched tonight”] EGNOS, or European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, is a joint program being carried out by the European Space Agency, the European Commission and Eurocontrol. It comprises a network of more than forty elements all over Europe that collect, record, correct and improve data from the US Global Positioning System. The modified signals are then relayed via geostationary satellites to user terminals, offering positional accuracy better than two meters, compared with 15 to 20 meters for GPS alone. In addition, EGNOS provides a guarantee of signal quality that GPS does not. The Galileo (GIOVE) sysem is scheduled to become operational in 2013. Please read on for more details. << First page <   1 2 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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